Apple-licious

It was such a beautiful, cool day today.  I'm ready for fall weather and fall cooking... so I made some Apple Cider Cupcakes from The Cupcake Bible.  I may have also made a Nana's Apple Cake.  :-)

Using my awesome mixer...

Chopping walnuts...

Into the oven they shall go...

Homemade apple icing...

Cooling...

Cupcakes all decorated...

Apple Cider Cupcakes

Yum!  :-)  Anybody have any other yummy fall recipes? 

Smoothie Heaven

I've had some gift cards for Barnes & Noble burning holes in my pocket all summer (thank you kindergarten families from last year!).  :-)  I finally decided to spend them on some fun things for myself... I got two books:  Smoothie Heaven and The Cupcake Bible.  Okay, and maybe this cute owl stroller toy for baby:

So cute!  :-)

Anyway, I've made two smoothies thus far out of the book that were both pretty tasty... and extremely easy to make!  You may have to invest in the book (it's on sale!) to get the recipes, though.  I'm not sure if I can share them without crossing some copyright law.  Hmm...

Pineapple & Coconut Smoothie

Apple & Nutmeg Smoothie

I apologize for the sideways-ness of that picture.  I've tried about ten times to rotate it, save it, and upload it correctly to no avail.  You'll have to turn your head to see it properly.  I will tell you that I am not a fan of nutmeg.  It's too... oaty smelling for my taste.  If that makes sense.  Instead of nutmeg, I added cinnamon! 

Did you know how much froth an apple makes when you blend it?  A lot!  I'll keep you posted on my smoothie adventures as I try some more.  :-)

Mexican Casseroles

Thanks for hanging in there with me, blog readers.  :-)  I decided that I miss cooking!  My preggo body has had some weird cravings, which has led to not so much real cooking.  We've definitely been doing more semi-cooking for convenience rather than using the awesome recipes I've been gathering for the past year.  I was thoroughly exhausted last week with school back in session and with my swollen feet, I can barely stand at night, let alone cook! 

So, I've decided that I'm going to do some serious cooking on the weekends so that I don't have to cook each night during the week.  We'll see how it goes.  Today I went with a Mexican theme and made Taco Soup, plus these two new casserole-y recipes I found:

Mexican Lasagna

Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole

Oh man, can I tell you how delicious these smelled as they were cooking?  It was like a creamy, melty, smorgasbord of Mexian fantastic-ness in my kitchen today. 

We sampled the Mexican Lasagna for lunch and it might truly be the best lasagna I've ever eaten.  Well, the best non-Italian lasagna, anyway.  My Uncle Dennis makes an excellent Italian lasagna that I'm not sure I can compete with yet.  Maybe someday.  ;-) 

The Texan Ranch Chicken Casserole is currently sitting in our freezer for an evening when we run out of other scrumptious food.  It smelled so good that it was hard to put it in there to save for later! 

Here are some other pictures I took as I was cooking.  Remember, we like things that are all thrown together in messy jumbles.  :-)  If that's not your thing, you may want to skip the whole casserole idea!

Enjoy! 

Do you have a good casserole recipe?  I'd love to hear/see/taste it!  :-D

Waffle Bats

Just thought I'd post some fun pictures of waffle bats that Jimmy and I made.  Yep, waffle bats.  :-) 

Those are bats made out of waffles, in case you are shaking your head in confusion.  At this point, nothing should surprise you. 

Jimmy's Waffle Bat!

Alissa's Waffle Bat!

Both were delicious.  Hehe.